Starting from yesterday, the National Council of Provinces’ (NCOP’s) permanent delegates expressed their disappointment when they were made aware of the recurring undesirable infrastructural and service delivery issues that are still facing a number of the primary health care facilities in the Letsemeng Local Municipality. This was when the Xhariep District Manager from the Provincial Department of Health, Mr Nkau Kgasane addressed the NCOP delegation in his presentation during the debriefing session early morning on Tuesday to kick-start the NCOP’s Taking Parliament to the People - Report Back Session currently taking place in the Mangaung Metropolitan and Xhariep District Municipalities from the 28th to 30th August 2018.

Upon having received the presentations concerning the Xhariep District Local Municipality’s achievements and the unresolved service delivery issues regarding last year’s NCOP Taking Parliament to the People recommendations on infrastructural maintenance and emergency medical services, the delegation immediately noticed a constant glitch that the presentations were particularly focused on district level instead of what is done for the Letsemeng Local Municipality. In the presentations, senior officials tried their level best to respond to probing questions but that could not help as the NCOP delegation, the MPL members from the Free State legislature and local councilors were all not happy with the improper answers and the manner in which these officials inadequately responded to simple questions. “Can we please get clarity and feedback on critical issues and recommendations that were raised by the NCOP last year. What are the impediments that make it impossible for these issues to be resolved? Can you please engage all the relevant local stakeholders to resolve the critical issues specific to Letsemeng Local Municipality and involve the Premiers Office, the Department of Treasury as well, said the NCOP leader of delegation, Mr Olefile Sefako cautioning those who tabled their reports at the debriefing meeting.

The NCOP delegation is very much concerned about the many challenges still facing the Koffiefontein Emergency Medical Services (EMS) station. The EMS service in this sub district is responsible for all the referral patients referred to faraway hospitals such as Diamant District Hospital in Jagersfontein, Pelonomi Private Hospital and National District Hospital in Mangaung. It is serving all the primary health care centres in the Letsemeng Local Municipality, i.e, Ethembeni Clinic, Jacobsdal Clinic, Luckhoff Clinic, Oppermans Clinic and Bophelong Community Health Centre. Despite one of the key recommendations last year, adding to various other challenges is the fact that ambulance service for all these local clinics is still provided from Koffiefontein via the EMS central control centre in Mangaung (Bloemfontein). As a result, it takes more than 45 minutes as per the stipulated set standard for ambulance services to reach patients in the rural areas as this sub district is vastly rural.

Today still, a lot emerged to the dismay of the NCOP delegates when they conducted oversight visits to the Jacobsdal and Luckoff clinics as they continued to realise that a lot of last year’s NCOP recommendations are still unresolved ranging from security issues, shortage of staff and fleet (ambulance and mobile clinic vehicles) to properly service the primary health care facilities.  To a larger extent these include problems with refurbishment and expansion of the existing primary health care facilities, needles to mention unattended promises for running water supply, building of new ideal primary health care facilities, bore holes and Jojo tanks for sustainable supply of running water.

However, the delegation is on the other hand pleased with the little progress made so far although this is mostly on a district level. To mention a few, the Xhariep District Municipality achievements in terms of the NCOP recommendations last year include; procurement of identified medical equipment and delivered to all primary health care facilities in the district, a maintenance hub that has been established with maintenance staff appointed to support the entire district with minor maintenance in all the primary health care facilities. Cleaning material is procured in bulk at sub-district office and is replenished as and when requested including office supplies, cartridges and stationary. A commitment has been undertaken by the Provincial Directorate to allocate security personnel to the district by October 2018, the district has received a primary health care bus in January 2018 and there is a mobile truck and six mobile vehicles servicing the farm areas. 

In order to ensure all the 2017 NCOP recommendations have been responded to, the delegation recommended that, all the relevant stakeholders to fully commit themselves on short term goals to speedily and effectively resolve any of the recommendations that can be attended to in a short space of time. These include burst water pipes, air conditioning systems and several other minor issues. It was agreed for all this to be done in two weeks-time and most importantly, for the District Municipality Manager to convene a Technical Integrated Government Relations meeting with all the stakeholders to avoid working in silos particularly clarification of roles so that all the departments can perform their duties to achieve the common goal. “This will be followed by a similar oversight visit by the NCOP Select Committee on Social Services and including the Health Portfolio Committee from the Free State legislature to oversee that all is in order and to escalate to the Minister of National Department of Health and the executive (Cabinet) level those issues that require such intervention,” said Mr Sefako to conclude today’s oversight visit.  

Tomorrow, the NCOP delegation will conduct oversight visits at Oppermansgronde and Ethembeni clinics and later attend a public meeting to take place at Walter Sisulu Multi-purpose Centre in Kofiefontein, at 16h00 to report back to the public members and to end the three-day NCOP -  Report Back Session in Free State.